Tuesday, February 12, 2013

I remember when this # meant POUND/NUMBER Sign



Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls of all ages, I have a something to tell that will rock your world. Probably change the way you look at life. I Joan "The Joan" "J-Dubs" "Jonas" Fahrenkrug do not have a Twitter account. And with such amazing nicknames, I damn well should. However, it is a form of social media that I refuse to participate in. 

I've never seen the appeal of social media. I did not have a MySpace when that was the “in” Internet platform. I would not have created a Facebook if it wasn't for my high school friends threatening to never talk me once we graduated. (Looking back, I’m sure I would have stayed in contact with them, but hey you don’t know these things when you are about to graduate high school.) 

However, when Twitter hit the web in 2006 I laughed at the idea of it. No one wants to know constantly what you are doing in short 140 character “tweets”. No one cares what mood you are in 24/7. Boy was I off on this one. 

I completely underestimated the natural nosiness of people. We are currently living in a generation that wants information now. This isn't a secret. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. You, reading this right now, are living breathing proof of this current generation, as am I.  

Since its inception, Twitter has taken on a life of its own. Businesses revolve around Twitter. I dare you to find a commercial that doesn’t include a; #TellMeYouSawThisCommericialByTweetingOurHashtag graphic. I cannot recall one Super Bowl commercial from this year that did not include a hash-tag. Nielsen, the company that assembles TV ratings and viewership, is contemplating ditching their old methods and focusing on gathering their information via Twitter. How many Walking Dead references do you think were tweeted this past Sunday?

Now, I'm not saying because I don't use Twitter that I am better then you. In fact, you may be a better person then I. You can actually figure out the monotony of it all. It is all gibberish to me, from the Timeline feeds to the @EnterYourTwitterHandleHere to #YOLO. (PS- No idea what YOLO meant for probably all of 2012, whoopsies.) 

My issue lies with the way Twitter has dumbed down, that's right I said it, dumbed down the way news is reported, especially in sports. Every writer, sportscaster, analyst, and athlete has a Twitter handle. Instead of waiting for your choice of sports website to update its home page with the latest AP generated news story, each reporter has to be the first to break it on Twitter. Gone are the days when one had to wait until the night edition of SportsCenter to receive the sports news of the day. Even now, they rely so heavily on social media it’s almost as if they have no ideas or perspectives of their own. It only matters what is trending currently online.

Twitter has given us all the opportunity to be a reporter. You no longer have to go to school for four years and learn AP style, proper grammar, and story-telling. As long as you can break the news first on social media you are golden. You think you smell jealousy stemming from this blog post? Perhaps. I did spend $40,000 on an education in Communications. However, when applying for jobs I was automatically not qualified for some because I DO NOT have Twitter.

Are you serious bro? Because I do not want to limit my ideas, opinions, feelings, or actions to 140 letters, I am not qualified for a sports media job.

But it’s the God’s honest truth. Unless you can tweet it, you will be left behind. This has diluted the quality of news. Media figures do not need to hold themselves to an ethical code of standards on Twitter. No longer are 1,000 word editorial pieces necessary. Just condense your thoughts into tweets and release them throughout the day and your good. It is not only insulting to my intelligence, but to anyone. As a society, we are too lazy to read a well-researched news story and instead will opt for the quickest way to gain information.  Said information we go for first perhaps 40% of the time may not be true or confirmed at the time of said “tweet.”

Twitter gives individuals, reporters, anyone a place to hide. The geeky guy can be the bully online. Hell the jock can appear poetic and smart. “O-M-G did you know Johnny was so sensitive? His Twitter is like so deep.”

Whatever happened to be who you are and people will accept you? Where are the people with ethical standards willing to spend the extra time to research a story before reporting it?  Twitter has taken this away. Give it back and maybe I’ll give into your social platform. Until then, I remain a traditionalist, an idealist, and hold out hope for a day when there will be Twitter free news sources. I just hope society has not become too lazy to embrace it.

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